The federal emergency response

The new administration’s first initiatives must be both domestic and global in scope. At the same time, it must be understood that the efforts within the first 100 days cannot represent the totality of its programme. This will require a combination of movement-building and constructing a broader social consensus in favour of significant structural change.

With that in mind, let us itemise the agenda:

1. Immediate withdrawal of US troops, bases and mercenaries from Iraq and Afghanistan

This should involve the following:

- Asking the United Nations and Arab League for assistance in creating a multinational, transitional team to bring the various forces on the ground together, along with regional powers, to negotiate a long-term resolution of the conflict and the stabilisation of Iraq.

- The elimination of any obligation on the Iraqi government to fulfill agreements imposed upon Iraq during the reign of Paul Bremer.

- Bilateral discussions with Iran regarding future policies and relations with the US.

- Multi-party discussions between the US, Pakistan and the various political forces in Afghanistan regarding a permanent settlement.

- A renouncement of any US intentions to have permanent bases in Iraq or Afghanistan; a withdrawal of US bases from Saudi Arabia; a renouncement of US intentions to secure control over oil and/or natural gas reserves in the region.

- Immediate talks toward establishing a US/European Union/Russian/Arab League/Israeli/Palestinian joint committee on the resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Deployment of a special envoy to lay the foundations for this project.

2. Economic triage

The ongoing economic meltdown calls for both immediate relief and long-term management. In the short-term, however, several steps need to be taken, including, but not limited to:

- A moratorium on foreclosures and evictions while providing immediate assistance to those affected by these actions to renegotiate the terms of their debt.

- An extension of unemployment and food stamp benefits. Greater numbers of the working poor have come to depend on food stamps in order to survive, and the current apportionment insufficiently reflects today’s cost of living. According to the Bread for the World group, most food stamp households spend 80 per cent of their benefits by the 14th of each month. The food stamp system must be retooled to meet the full nutritional needs of its recipients.

- Immediate public service job creation. As part of a longer-term initiative, the federal government must begin emergency public sector reconstruction work, focusing on bridges, tunnels and levees. We need a programme along the lines already proposed by Barack Obama, who suggested the dedication of $210 billion to create construction and environmental jobs: $60 billion would be directed to a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to rebuild public projects such as highways, bridges, airports; and $150 billion would be earmarked for the creation of five million ‘green-collar’ jobs to develop more environmentally friendly energy sources. This would be funded through cuts in military spending.

- Federal intervention is necessary to halt the collapse of student loan programmes. A hidden crisis, which is part of the larger credit crunch, has been the declining number of banks that offer affordable student loans. A federal intervention, therefore, is needed to make sufficient funds available.

- Elimination of Bush’s tax cuts for the rich, which, along with the Iraq and Afghan wars, have been bleeding the economy. Steps must be taken to reclaim the money that has been disproportionately funnelled to corporations and the wealthy. Though longer-term tax reform will be necessary, the first step is to stop the haemorrhaging.

3. A Marshall Plan for US cities and depressed regions

The Hurricane Katrina disaster and the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse exposed significant problems with our political leadership, economic choices and the basic infrastructure of the US (not to mention race, gender and class politics when it came to Katrina). The following initiatives should be announced:

- A national commitment to launch a domestic version of the Marshall Plan. This programme would involve a renewal of the US physical and social infrastructures. A successful modern-day Marshall Plan would also build upon the work of groups such as the National Jobs for All Coalition, which has proposed a 21st-century Public Investment Act. The proposal features: a Public Works Authority that, while working with state and local authorities to create permanent jobs, would provide long-term funding for high priority public works and infrastructure projects, ensuring that these projects employ the unemployed and underemployed; a Public Investment Fund that would fund a Public Service Employment Programme designed to close job gaps, while continuing to encourage job creation; and a National Employment Accounting Office that would evaluate progress and assess ongoing needs for job creation and public investment. At least 25 per cent of such jobs should be staffed by people of colour, with at least another 25 per cent staffed by women.

- Regional planning authorities should be established in depressed regions to explore economic development strategies such as industrial cooperatives, public-private partnerships, and governmental incentives to encourage the creation of new industries.

- Emergency measures to provide more low-income housing. This would include legislation for a federal affordable housing trust fund and a housing assistance tax act, which would, among other provisions, provide tax credits to first-time homebuyers.

4. Immediate signing of the Kyoto Protocol

The US is way behind the rest of the world on the environment. Our over-dependence on fossil fuels has straitjacketed the global economy (making the greater international community highly dependent on oil), which has contributed to the rising global temperature. The environmental crisis, however, is not limited to global warming. The endangerment of various species paints a disturbing picture of an unravelling ecology. Most urgently, the new administration must:

- Sign the Kyoto Protocol, while making a commitment to launch international negotiations towards a new and stronger pact.

- Push through a renewable energy and job creation act to promote renewable energy, green-collar jobs, and tax benefits to middle-class families.

- Establish a ‘Green Commission’ that brings together labour, business, environmental groups, community-based organisations and government representatives to recommend technological, economic and developmental changes geared toward building a sustainable economy.

5. Pass and sign the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)

As a step toward jettisoning the one-sided class war against workers, the new administration must:

- Reaffirm the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)’s mandate that it is within US public policy to promote collective bargaining. It must draft legislation that proscribes any employer involvement in their workers’ choice of bargaining representatives.

6. A universal health care initiative

Universal, single-payer health care cannot take flight within the first 100 days. The groundwork, however, must be laid immediately. The new administration must:

- Establish a commission to draft legislation for universal, single-payer coverage.

- Plan for a one year drafting period, followed by national town meetings and hearings.

- Aim for passage before the midterm elections.

7. Immigration reform

Immediate steps must be taken to lay out an immigration reform programme that is coupled with changes in US foreign policy. This reform programme must include:

- Amnesty (in the form of permanent residency status) for undocumented workers who have no criminal record.

- A revised application process that gives priority to refugees from areas of political conflict where the US has been historically involved.

- Elimination of guest worker programmes. Investigation of already existing programmes’ impact on domestic and foreign-born workers.

- Unionisation rights for all workers within US borders, irrespective of their immigration status.

8. Forge global partnerships

Changing US foreign policy is an uphill, long-term process. Nevertheless, certain immediate measures are imperative. In addition to withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan, the new administration must:

- Create a 21st-century partnership programme to develop foreign aid and trade programmes designed to promote more self-reliance among nation states, while responding to the civilian needs in those areas.

- Promote trade relations based on fairness rather than on corporate interests. Explore a renegotiation of NAFTA.

- Implement the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty with steps toward de-nuclearisation.

- Employ special envoys for peace and development who will work with regional representatives to address matters such as political conflict, economic underdevelopment and environmental devastation.

Conclusion: a qualifying thought

This agenda will be moot without strong backing from social forces that are prepared to press for its implementation.

Any demobilisation of those who successfully brought the Democratic candidate to victory will buoy the political right’s leverage to assert its own agenda.

Right-wing forces will push for a continuation of the Bush administration’s anti-progressive policies.

Thus, if we are not prepared consistently to place enough pressure on our new ‘friend’ in the White House, we should expect a repeat of the Bill Clinton years, in which there was (technically) a high degree of access to the president and top cabinet officials, but the progressive social movements were afforded very little in the way of actual power.

The choice is ours, and we have precious little time to decide how we want to proceed.

These are highlights of an agenda first published in the autumn issue of the US journal New Labor Forum.

On Election Day I realised why I did not ask for the absentee ballot. Like millions of other voters, and particularly African Americans, I felt compelled to physically touch the voting machine. In my case, it was a touch-screen computer, but it would not have mattered whether it was that or an old-style lever that I had to push. The Fourth of November 2008 was a moment when I had to make physical contact with the voting machine and actually see my vote counted. I had to know that it was really happening. And I needed to stand in line – in my case for two and a half hours with hundreds of other African Americans – and wait patiently, for my moment to influence history.

Irrespective of any reservations one might have regarding the proposed policies of President-elect Obama (yeah, I get a kick out of writing ‘President-elect’), there is no question that his victory had a profound emotional impact. I never expected to see a liberal black person elected president, and I was not sure that a conservative would be elected either. As the returns were coming in my stomach was tied up in knots unlike anything that I have experienced since my daughter was born. I did not make predictions and I do not trust polls. More importantly, I did not trust the white electorate.

What to make of the election?

Obama won the popular vote by 52 to 46 per cent. This has not been achieved by a Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Nevertheless, it also shows that the USA is divided: McCain’s 46 per cent of the vote represented more than 55 million people.

It is noteworthy, though, that while Obama won only 43 per cent of the white vote, whites under the age of 30 backed him by a 66-32 per cent margin. Sixty-seven per cent of Latinos voted Obama, an important increase over those who went for John Kerry in 2004, while 55 per cent of women did so – again, better than Kerry, though he lost the white women’s vote by five per cent. It is also noteworthy that though Obama only received 45 per cent of the veterans’ vote, compared with McCain’s 54 per cent, this remains significant in light of the red- and terrorist-baiting targeted at him. Additionally, 60 per cent of union voters backed Obama compared with McCain’s 38 per cent, a lower percentage than should have sided with Obama in light of the current economic crisis but a reflection that racial divisions within the house of labour were fewer than had been feared.

The election reflected several important issues:

n The economy There is no question that the economic crisis had a significant impact on the electorate. 63 per cent of voters indicated that the economy was a priority issue. McCain never succeeded in crafting a message that resonated with the public.

n A concern about the perception of the US overseas There was a sense among Obama supporters that there needed to be a change in the relationship of the US to the rest of the world. This feeling was very unfocused, however.

n A decline in the importance that voters attached to the Iraq war and terrorism With regard to Iraq, this probably reflects a growing sense that the Iraq war is coming to an end and that the occupation is not a critical issue.

n The next Supreme Court appointments For 47 per cent of the electorate this was a critical issue. The next appointments are especially important to liberals and progressives who have been watching the Supreme Court make increasingly indefensible decisions that reflect its right-wing course.

n Race matters … sort of Particularly among younger voters, race was a less significant factor in influencing voter behaviour than had been thought. The economic meltdown led many white voters to put racial concerns on the back burner. That said, the ‘racial neutrality’ of the Obama campaign took matters of racist oppression largely off the table for any significant discussion, a fact that may return to haunt the incoming administration.

Obama’s mandate

Obama’s mandate is vague, yet it is identifiable in two key areas: first, to address the economic crisis immediately in a manner that favours ordinary working people; and second, to change the relationship of the US to the rest of the world. This second point is unfocused, but it is evident that voters are increasingly concerned about the perception of the US overseas and what that means for matters of national security.

Most people were unfamiliar with the actual programmatic steps Obama is advocating on the economy, yet they were unwilling to be swayed by the red-baiting rhetoric of McCain/Palin, who called Obama a ‘socialist’. This may offer an opportunity for progressives to advance a redistributionist approach.

With regard to foreign policy, this is extremely complicated and quite troubling. While Obama has emphasised the need for negotiations as a first step towards better international relations, when confronted by forces to his right he has tended to back down and suggest military and crypto-military options in handling crises, such as unilateral attacks on al-Qaeda bases in Pakistan. Some people around Obama also seem to be advocating a get-tough approach towards Iran, which itself could lead to hostilities. While the US people, by and large, are not looking for more war, the ability of the political right to manufacture the ever-present threat from right-wing Islamists (including but not limited to targeting Iran) has successfully promoted a climate of fear. This will, more than likely, be a weak point for the president-elect and a place where pressure must be placed by anti-war forces.

The world is expecting a great deal from an Obama administration. Obama will more than likely reach out to traditional US allies to repair the damage done by the Bush administration. There will more than likely be outreach to Africa too. As a senator, Obama expressed a great deal of interest in Africa, and developed legislation focusing on the ongoing crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He will probably try to alter the relationship of the US to Africa, though it is not clear how thorough such an alteration will be. We should expect outreach to the African Union to offer support in cases of humanitarian disasters and crises, but unless Obama is prepared to break with the whole ‘war against terror’ framework there may be continued militarisation of the continent (through vehicles such as Africom and the Trans-Sahel Military Initiative).

Critical support

Progressives will need to perfect an approach of ‘critical support’ towards the Obama administration. The corporate backers of president-elect Obama have no interest in a transformative agenda; they are interested in stabilising capitalism. They are open to selective nationalisations as long as these do not bring with them significant popular accountability. We will need to be organised in such a way to mount a challenge from the left. President Obama will need to be pushed in many areas, including foreign policy, healthcare, housing, jobs, and, in general, the need for a pro-people approach to the economic crisis. Critical support means, tactically, pointing out what has not been accomplished in the Obama agenda on the one hand, and, on the other, challenging the new administration when it advances policies that are regressive, such as threatening Iran or Cuba, or compromising on healthcare.

Critical support also means raising issues that the Obama administration may tend to shy away from, such as race and racism. Race is fused into the US system. Racist oppression and the differential in treatment between people of colour and whites remains a major part of the US reality. For that reason, progressives must push the Obama administration to address the continuing impact of racist oppression. This may lead to clashes that appear to be tactical (matters of timing), but are actually quite fundamental (about whether there needs to be a systemic challenge to racist oppression).

None of this happens in the absence of organisation. Those who rallied to the Obama campaign came from various political tendencies and experiences, and many of them will seek to return to their ‘everyday life’. At the same time, there are those who mobilised who are looking to be part of implementing the ‘dream’ and they will be unable to do this as individuals operating alone. If one really wants to advance an approach of critical support for the incoming administration, it will mean creating the grass-roots organisational structures around the country that are capable of educating and mobilising the millions of people who are seeking a new direction. This approach, a neo-Rainbow Coalition approach, can be used to exert pressure to ensure that the incoming Obama administration lives up to its full potential.

So many of us cried with joy and amazement on the evening of 4 November after this historic breakthrough. Our excitement cannot rest with the electoral success, but must be fused with a genuine effort to create a new politics.

Bill Fletcher Jr is the executive editor of BlackCommentator.com and a senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies. He is the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and the co-author of Solidarity Divided, which analyses the crisis in organised labour in the US. This is an edited version of an article that first appeared on BlackCommentator.com
Photographs by Stefano Serra (serrastefano@gmail.com)